Elliptical utterances respond to a statement but leave out the context, specifically the subject or verb, for that response. For example, if someone said, “John canceled tonight’s meeting,” you could respond with a complete sentence, such as “John must have canceled because he has a bad cold.” You could however also respond with an elliptical utterance, “Bad cold.” While this truncated phrase explains John’s cancellation without the context of the original statement, it offers little contextual relevance or meaning by itself. It also cannot stand alone as a clause, as it has left out the subject, John, and the verb, “canceled” or “has.”